The type event doesn't work on elements without a value property

• @testing-library/user-event version: 12.1.10
• Testing Framework and version: jest 24.1.0
• DOM Environment: react-dom 16.13.1

Relevant code or config

import React from 'react'
import '@testing-library/jest-dom'
import userEvent from '@testing-library/user-event'
import {render, screen} from '@testing-library/react'
import {useHotkeys} from 'react-hotkeys-hook'

function Counter() {
  const [count, setCount] = React.useState(0)
  useHotkeys('ctrl+k', () => setCount(prevCount => prevCount + 1))

  return <>Pressed {count} times.</>
}

test('increment counter', async () => {
  render(<Counter />)
  const count = screen.getByText('Pressed 0 times.')
  userEvent.type(document.body, '{ctrl}k{/ctrl}')

  expect(count).toHaveTextContent('Pressed 1 times.')
})

Reproduction repository

https://codesandbox.io/s/blissful-waterfall-p4fi4?file=/src/index.test.js

Problem description

The library doesn’t seem to support the type event on elements that don’t have a value property. This prevents testing scenarios with global keyboard shortcuts that trigger effects. For instance, in the above sandbox, we increment the counter when hitting ctrl+k (bound to document.body) as you can see in the Browser tab (make sure the document is focused).

However, the test using userEvent.type doesn’t pass (see Tests tab). It does with fireEvent.keyDown.

Is it in the vision of user-event to support this, or should it remain a fireEvent scenario? And if the latter, what is the rationale?

[kentcdodds]

I think we should support type on non-value elements 👍

[kentcdodds]

I can’t remember 😅 so I guess we can just go forward.